No, they're not all actors. Some of them are primates put in fight shorts and then strategically shaved.
(you've seen Tito, right?)

"Judo is a study of techniques with which you may kill if you wish to kill, injure if you wish to injure, subdue if you wish to subdue, and, when attacked, defend yourself" - Jigoro Kano (1889)
***Was this quote "taken out of context"?***

"The judoist has no time to allow himself a margin for error, especially in a situation upon which his or another person's very life depends...."
~ The Secret of Judo (Jiichi Watanabe & Lindy Avakian), p.19

"Hope is not a method... nor is enthusiasm."
~ Brigadier General Gordon Toney

"Judo is a study of techniques with which you may kill if you wish to kill, injure if you wish to injure, subdue if you wish to subdue, and, when attacked, defend yourself" - Jigoro Kano (1889)
***Was this quote "taken out of context"?***

"The judoist has no time to allow himself a margin for error, especially in a situation upon which his or another person's very life depends...."
~ The Secret of Judo (Jiichi Watanabe & Lindy Avakian), p.19

"Hope is not a method... nor is enthusiasm."
~ Brigadier General Gordon Toney

I don't think it was a disqualification. The only reason they crowned a corpse winner was because he forced his opponent to submit but killed himself in the process. Most matches ended in submission but deaths did happen occasionally.

As I recall it was a footlock. I'm trying to figure out a position where one man can be choked to death & be footlocking his choker into submission at the same time. Anybody have any ideas?

Yeah, when someone has a crappy backmount and is going for the RNC, you can key your legs over their ankles (especially if they cross them) and make a bridging motion with the hips, while using your arms to defend against their arms. Or you could try to twist the foot outward with your hands, but then you have no hands free to defend. I'm imagining possibly a standing RNC with the legs wrapped around the standing opponent with him trying to twist the foot, and then him falling down unconscious, crushing the other guy against the ground (which was probably not a nice matted area) and causing him to quit when the wind was knocked out of him and they assumed it was the lock attempt. If any of it ever actually happened, that is.